Pooja Shukla was abducted by UP police at around 4.30 pm as she was just walking out of a friend’s house in the Polytechnic area in Gomtinagar. According to Shukla, two police vans loaded with about twenty police men and women, some in uniform, some in plainclothes came to detain her. “As they were forcibly detaining me, they kept thrashing me. The male police officers instructed the women constables to pull my hair and thrash me,  ‘Phone chheeno S##@i se, baal nocho, (snatch her phone, pull her hair) they said’” informed a bruised and exhausted Pooja Shukla as she was let off at around 9.10 pm today after she was practically kidnapped by the police!

As she was picked up, her phone was snatched away from her and remained unanswerable even after several calls. Her worried friends kept trying to track her even as she was being taken to a deserted area. After reaching a certain spot, which was completely deserted, the police told her that they were planning to just leave her there. But a defiant Shukla refused to step out of the vehicle. “I told them, drop me back to the same place where you picked me” she said.

Meanwhile, the women police officers kept having a ‘good time’ with Pooja’s phone. Initially they didn’t answer calls, later they started proxy answering on Pooja’s behalf. Every ten minutes their narrative of where Pooja was, kept changing. To one caller they said that Pooja was at the mall, while to another caller they said she was taking care of her friend Sadaf’s baby who was unwell. To another caller, the lady constable said, “I am her mother and Pooja is sitting right next to me.” To their shock and dismay, the caller turned out to be Pooja’s father who informed them that Pooja’s mother was, in fact, sitting right in front of him. But the police woman did not lose a beat and casually responded saying, “Oh, I was joking, she is roaming around the mall.”

This was the most callous, careless and irresponsible manner in which a 23 year old girl was ‘picked up’ and “mentally tortured” for about five hours even as the friends and family remained extremely tensed and kept making multiple rounds of police stations in the vicinity, as also kept calling higher ranking officers. “We don’t know anything about the arrest of any such girl. We are right now busy with preparations for PM’s visit” was the standard response from most of them.

As Pooja returned, she recounted the horror, “They kept spewing horrible and obscene swear words at me.” Taunting at her on her stand for students rights they said, “Oh, you want publicity? You want media attention? You have been posting too much. Refrain from writing anything on social media otherwise the consequences won’t be to your liking!”

As they wouldn’t let her answer her calls, Pooja made an excuse that she needed to urgently use a washroom. When they stopped at a “Sulabh Shauchalaya” (public toilet), she made a quick call using the toilet attendant’s phone and informed her friends that it appears that she has been abducted and is being taken to some unknown location. After mentally torturing her for close to five hours and giving her some thrashing initially, they finally let her off only when Pooja started collapsing from fatigue and stress.

While dropping her, they said, “We will keep you inside [the jail] for so long that you won’t be able to come out. We are yet to impose NSA on you. We haven’t forgotten what happened at the [Lucknow] University.”

Sadaf Jafar, a teacher and supporter of the strike, who initially reported about this abduction, asked, “If none of the police officers whom we called knew if she was arrested, under whose orders was she picked up in this manner?”

The 23 year old student leader had gone on a hunger strike when the Vice Chancellor (VC) of the Lucknow University (LU) withheld her entrance exam results, barring her from taking admission in a master’s course. Subsequently, Shukla along with fellow protesters was brutalised by UP police, lathi-charged, her clothes torn, though there was FIR lodged against her. Due to the police torture she had fainted and suffered hypotension and dehydration. During this time, police also forced her to break her fast, stop the strike and take back her demands. Since then there has been constant threat to her life because of her peaceful movement against the irregularities in admission procedure of LU.

Interestingly this abduction and intimidation took place while PM Modi is on a visit to Lucknow to “attend a programme marking the third anniversary of three key urban development initiatives.” It’s shameful that on the same day that the PM is visiting, a student leader involved in a peaceful movement demanding basic students’ rights was abducted in this manner. It appears that the police were trying to prevent any protests that could take place on the PM’s visit given Pooja’s previous attempt to wave black flags at UP CM Adityanath in June 2017. It is also disturbing to note that just a few hours ago, police had manhandled some women for waving black flags at an event to welcome BJP Chief Amit Shah. What is the difference between police men and paid henchmen, when abducting, intimidating and brutalising a young girl is how they hope to curb voices of dissent?
 

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RoopRekha Verma taught in Lucknow University for over four decades. She broke past academic records at the undergraduate and postgraduate level. She gained eminence as an academic early on in life, having published papers in some of the most prestigious journals. She has been passionate about social activism and is recognized as a strong voice against religious fundamentalism and conflict, violence against women and other human rights issues.

It is well known that Verma is a staunch critic of the right while the current VC, Singh is said to be closely associated with the RSS. The university administration ordered a probe into the supposed role played by Verma. After the high court took suo moto cognisance of the violence, the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) told the court thatshe encouraged the agitating students to resort to violence.

Denying any such possibility, Verma said, “I was many miles away. Not present at the protest site at all when the violence took place,” She also added that she extended her support to the protesting students and visited the site but that was two days before the incident of suggested violence took place. She said, “..in no way did I or anyone else at the protest encourage violence”

Verma believes that she is being targeted, “They are trying to target me because I have been an outspoken critic of the university administration and how some of the steps taken by it go against the ethos of secularism,”

Former Vice Chancellor of Lucknow University Professor RoopRekha Verma and litterateurs Naresh Saxena and Virendra Yadav had gone to the University campus and sat on a stir with students who were on a hunger strike since July 2.

Students sat on a strike because as many as 25 students were denied admission to postgraduate courses by LU on grounds that they were involved in ‘indiscipline’

On July 4, apparently, an incident of violence broke out when some students tried to block the path of the VC passing the site in his car. It was unclear who attacked the VC but the blame was put on the students who were, in fact, engaged in a peaceful demonstration.

Seemingly, innocent students who merely sat for the hunger strike, were beaten mercilessly by the police. Afterwards, student leader Pooja Shukla was arrested for three days as she was leading the hunger strike. She was badly beaten up and had fainted due to hypotension and dehydration on July 5.

The High Court had taken suo moto cognisance of the violence, reprimanded the UP police for not acting on the complaint of the LU administration. It has asked the state police to file an affidavit informing the court about its investigations into the violence and the next hearing is on July 16.

Related
Student leaders express anger over beating and arrest of Pooja Shukla and others
 
 

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Image Courtesy: Two Circles
 
Lucknow: Pooja Shukla, a student leader of Lucknow University, has gone on a hunger strike outside the university to protest the administration’s refusal to release her entrance exam results. She had shown black flags to UP CM Yogi Adityanath in 2017 and was imprisoned for about a month following the incident.
 
She had demanded a written notice making the stance of the University clear and if their demands were not met, she would go on a non-violent fast until death from Monday. At 11 am today, the fast has begun outside the university gates.
 
“Shukla, who graduated from the University in 2016, gave the entrance examination for Master in Arts in Women Studies on June 4. When the result of the same came up on June 28, Shukla couldn’t find her name on the website. When she inquired about this with the University’s controller of examination, she was told that the orders to hold her results came from the “top.” According to Shukla, Lucknow University has a policy of showing results of even those who have scored no marks in the merit list. In the light of the same fact, not showing Shukla’s result is a violation of the University’s own policy,” TwoCircles.net reported.
 
“Pooja Shukla, who is a member of Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha as well as of Samajwadi Party, has said that denying admission result is a repercussion of her protest against the CM. However, the university has also stopped results of about 30 students who applied across 40 courses, without giving any apparent explanation to the students. Following this issue, Shukla met the University’s vice-chancellor with a delegation of five students. As per the allegations, vice-chancellor Prof SP Singh talked rudely with Shukla and her companions. Singh told students that the final decision to allow admission or not rested with him. Singh allegedly also told Shukla that her result was denied as a result of her protest against the chief minister of the state, despite the fact that Shukla was not even a student of the university when she waved black flags at Yogi last year. Sources at the university said that the allegations made by student leader Pooja Shukla are true, and the University has been taking such steps after interest shown by Dinesh Sharma, the deputy chief minister of the state, an allegation which is yet to be confirmed,” the report added.
 
She asked for support through her Facebook page detailing her protest, the administration’s actions through photos and videos.
 
Read also
Richa Singh, Mohit Pandey Detained, Lucknow Police Lathi Charges Peaceful Students Protest
FIR filed against 11 students of Lucknow university for protesting against Yogi Adityanath
 

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Pooja Shukla meeting with vice-chancellor of Lucknow University (Photo – TwoCircles.net).

Shukla, who graduated from the University in 2016, gave the entrance examination for Master in Arts in Women Studies on June 4. When the result of the same came up on June 28, Shukla couldn’t find her name on the website.

When she inquired about this with the University’s controller of examination, she was told that the orders to hold her results came from the “top”.

According to Shukla, Lucknow University has a policy of showing results of even those who have scored no marks in the merit list. In the light of the same fact, not showing Shukla’s result is the violation of University’s own policy.

Pooja Shukla shot to fame in 2017 when she hurled black flags at the convoy of Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of the state, in Lucknow. By then, Shukla was not a student of the University. For the same act, Shukla and others spent more than a month in prison.

Pooja Shukla, who is a member of Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha as well as of Samajwadi Party, has said that denying admission result is a repercussion of the same. “I met the Controller of Examinations and Chief Proctor yesterday, and they said that the order to stop my results came from the top.”

However, the university has also stopped results of about 30 students who applied across 40 courses, without giving any apparent explanation to the students.

Following this issue, Shukla met the University’s vice-chancellor with a delegation of five students. As per the allegations, vice-chancellor Prof SP Singh talked rudely with Shukla and her companions. Singh told students that the final decision to allow admission or not rested with him.
Singh allegedly also told Shukla that her result was denied as a result of her protest against the chief minister of the state, despite the fact that Shukla was not even a student of the university when she waved black flags at Yogi last year.

When TwoCircles.net tried to contact university officials regarding this story, the phone of almost every official went unanswered. Those who answered the calls refused to answer to the allegations. However, sources at the university said that the allegations made by student leader Pooja Shukla are true, and the University has been taking such steps after interest shown by Dinesh Sharma, the deputy chief minister of the state, an allegation which is yet to be confirmed.

Shukla has demanded that the University should give its stand in written otherwise she and several others will sit on fast until death from Monday.

Courtesy: Two Circles
 

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LUCKNOW

As an independent academic, a thinking person and a woman, I have been the victim of systematic personal and political vendetta from the hard–line Hindutva lobby led by the RSS, in the city of Lucknow and the state of Uttar Pradesh, for decades. This crude targeting of my character culminated into systematic attacks and threats when I was appointed acting vice–chancellor of the Lucknow University in the late nineties. But the battle goes back many decades to a much, much earlier period. They have been threatening me, slurring my character ever since 1979.

In the year 1979–80, there was an orchestrated movement to personally target me. Sexually derogative and malicious falsehoods were systematically circulated. This is a typical illustration of the underhand tactics that they follow whenever they are challenged and threatened by the convictions of an independent and strong person. 
(As told to Comunalism Combat).

Archived from Communalism Combat, September 2001, Anniversary Issue (8th)
Year 8  No. 71, Cover Story 6

I was given derogatory names; my parents and brother were sought out and humiliated; my students who found me a dedicated teacher were also instigated to go against me. There used to be three dailies published from Lucknow at the time. For a whole year, that is, for 365 consecutive days, all three published one vilificatory report on my character after another every single day. I felt boycotted and isolated. There can be no better way to break a person.

The motive? One of my colleagues who has now retired wanted to convert the whole philosophy department into a den that endorsed the RSS version of reality! He wanted us to accept Balasaheb Deoras as a great philosopher. I simply could not let that happen. It was a question of my integrity to my discipline, to my subject. It was a question of what I owed to myself, my principles. I did not let that happen.

Frustrated and angry that his designs were being resisted, he took recourse to the mean and underhand path. He instigated falsehoods and spearheaded a whole movement; I became the target.
It was a trial of strength that went on for a full year. It was tough but at the end of it, when the facts came to light, the same colleague, the mastermind of the slur campaign was himself isolated, for many years to come. I was appointed as acting-VC as per the university rules, and my detractors had to swallow my presence in that chair!

Having undergone this gruelling and searing experience, I learnt so much. The whole experience served one purpose. I lost my innocence —previously I believed that every person is essentially good and can be won over! This learning process was very precious because it has given me strength and also made me thick-skinned. To be strong and thick-skinned are both necessary and crucial, especially when we are fighting highly principled battles!

Why was I such a threat to these forces? For two reasons, I think. Firstly, because I was so firm and strong in my views and simply refused to succumb to them. Secondly, because I was a woman. 
Now, it is interesting to see how gender plays out in these situations in a subtle or not so subtle way. My appointment and promotions had been on merit. Many of my male colleagues would have been happy if I were content being a kathputli (puppet) in their hands. 

You must understand this mentality. I had a very good record. At the beginning, I was seen as a harmless person who would not argue though my views were radical even then; they had simply not yet been tested against very rigid points of principle! 

So, initially there was a distinctly patronising attitude behind the campaign: aurat bechari hai, ro ke bhaag jayegi (after all, she is a woman, she will cry and run away!). Court cases were filed, my father was on his deathbed, the atmosphere was terrible. But something in me made me determined to fight them on all counts. I fought the cases and though I had an offer then to shift to Hyderabad, I felt strongly that I should clear my cards here.

Would you believe what happened, then? Suddenly their nomenclature for me changed! This woman is fighting on every front, they started saying. Suddenly from bechari aurat I became a Phoolan Devi! I publicly said that I preferred the new ‘title’. If there are only two choices before me,  bechari aurat or Phoolan Devi, surely a woman is bound to prefer the latter!

You see how within all this, gender also plays a role. They wanted a nice little girl who would do as they wish so that they could run the department as per their wishes. But this I simply would not allow!
Now you ask where it all began, I am not really sure. Discourses that emphasise the Hindu and Muslim stereotype have abhorred me from the very beginning. I cannot remember or recall any episodic cause or event that can be the source of what are today extremely deep convictions. I do not know where and when it started. I only know that I did not grow up in a very ritualistic atmosphere at home. The general atmosphere was liberal. 

I remember as I grew up becoming more and more sceptical about anything repeated ad nauseum, or routinely. Somehow or the other, from a very young age, oft–repeated things put me off because in some way they reflected a tendency to pigeon–hole and stereotype the rich variety of the human experience. 
It is part of this inherent tendency of mine from the very beginning that has made be abhor the Hindu and Muslim stereotype images that lie at the heart of the Hindutva’s way of thinking from the very beginning.
The other memory of my childhood is one that was vividly brought home to be by my parents who described the violence and hatred unleashed during the Partition–related violence. When my parents spoke of those days, the events were recalled with horror and dread; there was no apportioning of blame; no discourse of hatred surrounding the narrative. 

These accounts left an indelible influence on me; for me that kind of situation or anything close to it is Enemy Number One: anything that comes close to anything like that frightens me and must be avoided at any cost. This is my amateurish analysis of my unconscious mind!

Basically, I believe that the human being is already so vulnerable and it is this vulnerability that endows us with the capacity for both love and revenge. I do not know why but anything that accentuates the possible cleavages, the capacity for revenge, frightens me the most. It is this fear that makes me committed to rationality, non–violence a humanistic approach.

I also find it stupid to harbour these divisions because they defy logic. In today’s situation, in today’s India, I believe that it is everyone’s duty to do all that we can to fight and combat the forces of division. Agar kisi ko apne zinda rahne ka saboot dena hai to aise kaam mein lagna hi padega (To be engaged in this endeavour is the only proof that you existence). We must participate in processes that challenge these cleavages and separations.

Now, religion has a unique capacity. The sharp edge of religion has a dual potential, of dividing as well as uniting. In the modern age, it’s divisive potential is sharper. Therefore, I believe it should be confined to the personal sphere. At an individual level, religion or spirituality touches us at a unique and beautiful plane. Without the refuge of traditional religion, I can feel one with the cosmos while watching the sunset or observing close human relationships. This is the strength of religion. Provided that it remains in the realm of the personal. 

I believe that socialised religion and the superstructures within religions place ethical and social constraints on the human mind. It is also this double–edged quality of religion that makes people commit heinous crimes without even feeling sorry about the actions. Hence I sincerely believe that secularism at the state level is both vital and urgent.

I also believe that the threat from forces that wish to stereotype communities and exploit the politics of identity, those who would like to hegemonise minds are as active among Muslims and other minorities as they are among Hindus. Look at what is happening in Kashmir today; it is abominable the kind of diktats on women that are being issued! Our struggles against all the forces of fanaticism and fundamentalism must be firm and strong as these forces are insensitive to human life. We must be unsparing and address all sides, the obscurantists within all communities must be challenged! 
(As told to Comunalism Combat).

Archived from Communalism Combat, September 2001, Anniversary Issue (8th) Year 8  No. 71, Cover Story 6
 

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